Describe the two most interesting or unusual chapter activities this year:

One of our most popular events is our Annual Integration Bee. This year marked your 10th year. It is great in that our graduate students run the Bee so that the undergraduate students can partake. It’s hard to say only one more event for there were so many. For example, here is a few activities. 1) PME students, as community service, helped stuff stockings for the Salvation Army at Christmas time. 2) PME students started a mentoring program, matching underclassmen with upperclassmen. 3) PME students (undergraduate and graduate) gave seminars to their peers. 4) PME students tutored, once a week, at a local high school.

Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present a paper at the 2012 PME national meeting at MathFest in Madison, Wisconsin?

Yes. The winner of our “Problem of the Month” contest will attend MathFest.

Do you have any news about current students or recent graduates, for example, scholarships or other awards, acceptances to graduate school, paper presentations at conferences?

Too many to mention. Here are just a few (sorry if I overlooked some). Below is a cut&paste from USC’s math dept homepage (each student mentioned is a PME member). 1) Taylor Jones on winning a very prestigious University leadership and service award! He won the Wilson-Kibler Bicentennial Award which also comes with a scholarship. 2) two Math majors are among the three USC students named 2012 Goldwater Scholars! They are William “Cole” Franks and Daniel Grier, both of whom are attending the prestigious Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program. 3) The USC Math Jeopardy team placed 4th out of over 30 teams at the 2012 Southeast Regional Meeting of the Math. Assn. of America. Our team of Reggie Bain, Connor Bain, Reid Harris, and Richard Voepel was supervised by grad student Virginia Johnson. Great job! Thanks to Pi Mu Epsilon/Gamecock Math Club, the Department’s donors, and especially the Residence Hall Assn. for their support of the team. 4) Congratulations to Robin Neumayer, SCHC senior mathematics major, and Reginald (Reggie) Bain, SCHC senior double physics and math major! Each received a 2012 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a prestigious and highly competitive award reserved for exceptional students pursuing research-based graduate degrees